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CBRE has partnered with Deepki, a firm that collects environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) data, to roll out the platform in the properties CBRE manages worldwide to help buildings reduce carbon emission, Commercial Observer has learned.
The partnership also includes CBRE investing an undisclosed sum in the Paris-based Deepki, giving the brokerage a minority share, and lets CBRE roll out the service to the more than 2.9 billion square feet it manages globally starting Wednesday.
“We think it’s the most sophisticated in the landlord space in the market,” Emma Buckland, CBRE’s global president of property management, said. “Us making an investment really is about both sides making a commitment.”
Many have lamented the lack of high-quality ESG data in real estate. Deepki aims to fix that by automatically capturing things like energy and water consumption in properties. Owners also can see how their properties measure up to various ESG benchmarks and can have a clearly defined starting point to try to make their buildings greener.
“For any real estate owner to get a complete overview of their portfolio, you need to collect data,” Vincent Bryant, the CEO and co-founder of Deepki, said. “It’s absolutely key to have this to get the right insights in order to help people make the right decisions.”
CBRE’s property management team started using Deepki in the United Kingdom more than two years ago and, after seeing its usefulness, decided to use it globally. It went one step further with a partnership and investment as ESG becomes more important to the industry, Buckland said.
“We really see ESG becoming more and more important with investor clients,” Buckland said.
Deepki was started in 2014 by Bryant and Emmanuel Blanchet and has since grown to cover 1.6 million properties in 52 countries. Last year, it closed on a $166 million Series C round.
Aside from helping Deepki expand within its native continent, the CBRE partnership also helps it get a foothold in other parts of the world, especially the United States market — which is expected to overtake Europe with ESG measures, and where Deepki only has two clients so far.
“Partnering with CBRE is the fastest way,” Bryant said. “[But] the U.S. is only a first step.”
Nicholas Rizzi can be reached at nrizzi@comemercialobserver.com.
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